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Babylon 5 Gravitic Weaponry
'Gravitic Weaponry' Primarily researched, designed and utilized by the Brakiri Syndicracy, gravitic weaponry is simple in theory – but extremely complex in practice. The idea behind a gravitic weapon is to accelerate a segment of intense gravity toward an enemy through an escalating singularity. Basically creating minuscule black holes as small as one atomic strand wide and firing them at the enemy, the weapon collapses a portion of the target’s mass under the extreme gravity before its existence winks out. The hardest part to manufacture of any form of gravitic weapon is the directional mechanism. What the Brakiri have discovered is that it is possible to move the weapon’s payload along in the same manner as a gravitic drive moves a ship – but on a much smaller scale. By increasing the gravitic pull directly in front of the weapon’s emitter, the shot should carry forward into the void at massive speeds, allowing inertia to do the rest. The only difficulty is making sure the weapon’s payload can last long enough to reach the target. Gravitic weapons are difficult to manufacture and require several monitoring and stabilization conduits to connect to a ship’s gravitic drive which all of these weapon systems must be attached to. *'Bypass Interceptors': Whether they are based on relatively basic laser technologies or more advanced neutron or bioelectric principles, beam weapons rank as the most devastating form of weaponry. These weapons ignore/bypass the target's Interceptors and/or Shields by the listed amount. 'Graviton Pulsar' The first of the long-ranged gravitic weapons that the Brakiri manufactured, the graviton pulsar is a row of several gravitic bolt emitters positioned and internally timed to fire in rapid succession. Not only do these shots stagger in order to create a wider field of fire, but they are mathematically pinpointed to travel in each others’ gravitic wake, carrying the shots farther while using far less of their own energy to do so. This means a longer range and a better impact ratio of the shots themselves. 'Grav Cannon' *Bypass Interceptors 1D+2 Taking advice from their belligerent neighbours, the Drazi, the Syndicracy eventually began to make larger and more energy-consuming gravitic weapons to fit to their hulls. The grav cannon is the first of these weapons, using a much bigger series of conduits to shoot a greater singularity toward the enemy. The larger anomaly can absorb a sizable portion of hull and material before its hunger is sated and blinks out of existence. Unlike a laser, that moves from side to side, the grav cannon sends its payload deeper in the vessel to hopefully rip apart sensitive internal systems before collapsing. Grav cannons may only fire once per turn due to their slow recharging times. 'Gravitic Bolt' A bolt of gravitic energy'.' 'Gravitic Blaster' *Fire Control: -1D A blast of gravitic energy. 'Graviton Beam' *Bypass Interceptors 1D The Brakiri’s first and only attempt at a sustained gravitic weapon, the graviton beam is an effective counterpart to many medium laser batteries in the galaxy. Sending dozens of grav cannon-sized anomalies at a single enemy in rapid succession can have the same slicing effect that a common laser does, but requires vast energy stores to map and project the attack. It takes several minutes – a lifetime in any heated battle – to recharge and re-plot the next shot, even with the help of the gravitic engine’s monitoring computer systems. Graviton beams may only fire once per turn due to their slow recharging times. 'Gravitic Lance' *Bypass Interceptors 1D *Fire Control: -1D After seeing the effectiveness of the scything beams of the Shadows time and time again during that war, the Brakiri wanted to create a weapon that could keep their warships well out of the range of such terrible weaponry as their smaller vessels moved in to engage. Trying a dozen different ways to extend range, the best way they found was to chain a series of larger graviton singularities together in a sustained firing pattern. Effectively, the first few gravitons ‘tow’ those behind them farther and farther, leaving the rest to smash into the target for remarkable damage. 'Graviton Shifter' The Brakiri once realised that their advanced gravitic drives could lend a hand to nearby ships that had lost access to their own – which immediately spawned the idea of using them against the enemy. Originally thought to be used for capture and towing, a brilliant fleet commander named Tor Okat ordered all of his towing gravitics to have their polarities reversed. The resulting gravitic projector could literally push enemy ships into disarray. The abrupt movement would ruin firing lanes, alter trajectories and throw crewmen to the floor all over the ship. It was ingenious, earning the commander a place in Brakiri wartime history and opening a whole new avenue of possibilities for the Syndicracy’s armada. *'Special': Any ship struck by a gravitic shifter it loses its Maneuverability bonus 'Gravitic Mine Launcher' After seeing the spectacular results of what happens when accidentally fired graviton singularities strike one another, the Brakiri saw a great opportunity. Designing twin streamlined graviton emitters to throw a pair of unstable anomalies at converging angles to bisect at a specific place, the gravitic mine was born. When the two hungry anomalies meet each one tries to devour the negativity of the other a thousand times in a millisecond, and instead they collapse in a powerful release of alternating gravitic energy that will lash out at any target caught in the surprisingly large field of destruction. Special: If an energy mine is fired at a fleet or wing, it applies its Damage against every single craft within that group. The one attack roll is compared to every craft’s piloting roll. 'Source' *Babylon 5 Ship Builder's Manual (pages 57-59) *thedemonapostle